SOCIETY: World Congress of Families rejects same-sex unions

The recent World Congress of Families, attended by about 4,000 people in Madrid, endorsed a declaration which specifically rejected the legalisation of same-sex unions by the government of Spain.

In a statement with direct relevance to Australia, where there are currently three bills before federal parliament to adopt same-sex marriage, and to the United States, where President Obama has declared his support for it, the declaration called on all supporters of marriage and the family to resist moves which would undermine the intact family and the institution of marriage.

The World Congress of Families is the world’s largest international coalition of pro-family leaders and organisations. It was established about 15 years ago, in recognition of the fact that the institution of marriage was being undermined by social, cultural and technological change, and by ideological forces.

These forces either regard marriage as being an unnecessary restraint on individual liberty, or regard marriage as a patriarchal institution which must be destroyed in the interests of creating a new social order.

All of these forces are at work in the present campaign to radically transform the institution of marriage, so that the meaning which it has always had — the union of a man and woman, entered into for life — would be changed to mean the coupling of any two people for whatever term they want.

Since its founding, the World Congress of Families has sought to promote the natural family, based on marriage, in which men and women would bring children into the world, and raise them in a loving and supportive environment.

It also sees the family as the optimal environment for the education of children and for the foundation of a domestic economy, offering security to both adults and children in times of trouble, and binding together the generations.

This positive vision is challenged by the prevailing culture of secular individualism, in which individual rights are seen to override the family, with the consequent increase in dysfunctional and broken families, and the attendant problems they create for both children and parents.

Meetings of the World Congress of Families have served to bring together thousands of people who support the institution of marriage, to encourage people in countries where it is being undermined to continue to fight for marriage and the family as vital to the future of society, to present the best available social research into the state of the family today, and to identify the forces which are undermining it.

Because of the push to radically transform marriage in Western Europe and the United States, by giving equal status to same-sex unions, a very high priority was given to this subject at the congress in Madrid, with a number of papers examining how this initiative has been supported by the homosexual movement, by institutions of the European Union and the United Nations, under the influence of social engineers, and some human rights organisations which have accepted the homosexual lobby’s claims that marriage between a man and a woman is discriminatory.

Among other themes developed at the congress were the social cost of pornography and the demographic disaster which is already crippling nations such as Japan and Russia, and which threatens to destroy the future prosperity of Europe and Asia, including China, which has pursued a one-child policy for the past 20 years, based on forced abortions and sterilisations.

The congress looked at how government policies, for better or worse, impact on the family, and how governments need to take a positive role in promoting the family as essential to both social stability and economic growth.

In fact, one of the causes of the present European financial crisis was recognised to be the impact of family breakdown, and the fact that, across much of the EU, families have become so small that national populations face the serious risk of imploding. Abortion is now one of the key means of population control.

The congress also examined policies to promote family life, including measures to keep families together; to encourage large families; to recognise the vital importance of mothering and of parental care of children rather than childcare; to rediscover homemaking; and to recognise that the family provides the ideal environment for building a domestic economy.

These are widely found in Australia, in single-income two-parent families, in small businesses and on family farms.

The congress had a forum for parliamentarians and family lobbyists, and considered ways of building a broader international alliance of pro-marriage, pro-family and pro-life activists, and discussed how to promote the positive image of marriage and the family to the wider community.

There were also practical workshops on use of the internet and social media, on how to promote responsible sexual behaviour and on building community leadership.

The congress provided the platform for pro-family activists and organisations around the world, and laid the groundwork for the next meeting of the World Congress of Families, which will be held in Sydney during May 15-18 next year.